Smoking marijuana and driving will now make you just as visible to the police as a drunk-driver, thanks to a former Canadian cop’s idea – the weed breathalyzer. He believes only fear of punishment will get Canadians to readjust their attitude.

Canada is known for its liberal attitudes towards the
recreational use of marijuana, and that’s something Kal Malhi,
the former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer who
worked in the drug enforcement division for four years, hopes to
change.

While the effects of weed and alcohol are indeed very different,
its creators Malhi and Vancouver radiologist Dr. Raj Attariwala
try to see beyond that. “The biggest wrecks that come through
a hospital”, Attariwala told CTV, are those whose driving was
impaired at the time. And “as engineers, we’re always trying
to make the world a little bit better,” he explains.

Some Canadians are understandably outraged at the news, seeing as
for years, weed has been outclassed by alcohol in a number of
ways relating to how it affects the health and personality of the
user. Despite this, a 2011 study in the BC Medical Journal does suggest that
the plant, “like alcohol, impairs the psychomotor skills
required for safe driving. Cannabis intoxication slows reaction
time and impairs automated tasks such as tracking ability
(staying within a lane) or monitoring the speedometer.”

The work Malhi and Attariwala are doing also goes a long way
toward making it easier for the police to do its job, since there
was virtually no way of knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt
whether a driver had been using at that precise moment, or
yesterday.

The force currently relies on saliva, blood and urine samples to
ascertain whether the driver has been using, but these can’t lead
to a criminal prosecution because the plant stays in the blood
system for several days, making it difficult to make a legal case
for drug-driving; whereas the pair’s creation will test for use
within the two preceding hours.

Usually, the most a driver will get if they have very obviously
been smoking weed behind the wheel is a 24-hour roadside
suspension. That is the problem, according to Malhi.

"People are becoming very afraid to drink and drive nowadays
because they feel that they will get caught and charged, but
they’re not afraid to drug and drive because they don't feel that
law enforcement will do anything about it," he explained to
CTV.

The Cannabix Breathalyzer’s detection abilities will make it a
much more effective tool in this regard. It still has to undergo
field tests and a patent is still pending, but Malhi and
Attariwala hope to present their creation to the minister of
justice and all other relevant authorities within the following
18 months.

Malhi says the device will also come in handy off the road,
especially in workplaces with mandatory drug tests.